Adalia is a name found in the King James Bible, appearing 1 time in the text.
Who This Was
Adalia was one of the ten sons of Haman, the enemy of the Jews in the book of Esther. He appears only in the list of Haman’s sons who were put to death by the Jews on the thirteenth day of the month Adar, the day that had been appointed for the destruction of the Jewish people but was instead turned into a day of deliverance. The account in Esther 9 records that the Jews gathered in their cities and struck down those who sought their harm, and among those killed were Haman’s ten sons.
Adalia is named in Esther 9:8, in the midst of a roster of Haman’s sons: “And Poratha, and Adalia, and Aridatha.” The list continues through verse 9, naming all ten. These men were not merely private citizens but the sons of the man who had plotted to annihilate the Jews throughout the Persian Empire. Their deaths occurred after Haman himself had already been hanged on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai, and after Esther had petitioned the king for the destruction of Haman’s household.
Scripture says nothing else about Adalia beyond his name and his death. He is not described as acting or speaking. He appears only as one of the sons of Haman who fell on that day, a silent figure in a larger account of reversal and rescue. The text presents his death as part of the deliverance God gave His people through Esther and Mordecai.
The Name
The name Adalia is a Hebrew name, but its precise meaning is not clearly recoverable from the biblical text or from standard Hebrew lexicons. Various suggestions have been offered by scholars, but none is well established enough to state with confidence. What can be said is that the name appears in a list of Persian-era names, and like several of the names in that list, its etymology is uncertain. It is better to acknowledge that the meaning is obscure than to assign it a meaning that the evidence does not support.
A Closing Thought
Adalia’s life is remembered in Scripture only in a single line, a name in a list of the doomed. He is a reminder that a person can be swept up in the consequences of another’s sin, and that a name can be recorded in the Bible without a single deed of its own. Yet even here, the account is not ultimately about Adalia but about the God who delivered His people. The brevity of this man’s mention invites us to consider where our own lives are anchored—not in the length of our record, but in the mercy of the One who writes the greater story.
At a Glance
- Gender: Male
- Testament: Old
- Mentions in the KJV: 1
Where It Appears in Scripture
- Esther 9:8 — And Poratha, and Adalia, and Aridatha,